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NYT

Makers of violent video games marshal support to fend off regulations

No clear link has emerged between the Connecticut rampage and the gunman Adam Lanza’s interest in video games. Even so, the industry’s detractors want to see a federal study on the impact of violent gaming, as well as cigarette-style warning labels and other measures to curb the games’ graphic imagery.

“Connecticut has changed things,” Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Virginia Republican and a frequent critic of what he terms the shocking violence of games, said in an interview. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do something.”

Gun laws have been the Obama administration’s central focus in considering responses to the shootings. But a violent media culture is being scrutinized, too, alongside mental health laws and policies.

“The stool has three legs, and this is one of them,” Mr. Wolf said of violent video games.

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“I don’t let games like Call of Duty in my house,” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said this week on MSNBC. “You cannot tell me that a kid sitting in a basement for hours playing Call of Duty and killing people over and over and over again does not desensitize that child to the real-life effects of violence.”

Yet another reason not to like Chris Christie..a video game hater

stupid politicians just don’t get it..there have been many studies over the years trying to link violent video games to aggressive behavior and none of them link it to them

“Connecticut has changed things,” Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Virginia Republican and a frequent critic of what he terms the shocking violence of games, said in an interview. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do something.”

But I’m sure Representative Frank R. Wolf would consider himself a small government conservative. Except when it comes time to DO SOMETHING!!!! about his pet causes.

I also own “assault rifles” and wait for it….. I’m still not a killing spree waiting to happen.

I’m a law abiding citizen who exercises his Rights. Get used to it.

Yakko77 on January 12, 2013 at 2:23 PM

That’s really what it boils down to. Do we believe the individuals’ right is more important, or that the “welfare of society” is more important? Unfortunately, far too many in this country and in Washington thing “society” should trump “individual” so while YOU may not be a killing machine, they believe that video games + guns increases chances of creating killing machines, so thus we must DO SOMETHING!!!! to fix it.

I doubt video games have anything to do with creating mass murderers, but even if they did, so what? There are a million factors that lead to that person pulling the trigger that day, we shouldn’t outlaw them. And yeah, I’ll bet there is a high correlation between mass murderers and video game players, but there’s also a high correlation between mass murderers and loners — who, in search of a hobby, often times end up playing video games, which is not at all uncommon.

Last time I was in Canada, I was not dissuaded from smoking by highly graphic images on the box. Just slightly inconvenienced at having to look at black lungs or a cigarette with ashes on it, looking really flaccid and a warning saying “smoking causes impotence.”

If we’re going to be completely honest, I thought the labels were funny and kept both empty packs to laugh about with friends.

I don’t even notice the warning labels on American cigarettes anymore.

On the one hand, this is dumb. I game a lot, and I suppose you could term the content violent, but pretty much every game I play involves magic, aliens, or zombies. Hardly real and desensitizing. Plus, I’m a volunteer firefighter, which means I respond to medical emergencies like car crashes and ODs. I probably know more about the reality of suffering and death than these dopes.

On the other hand, do we want the youth vote? We just need every real conservative to go on record saying that the case for limited government starts with video games: there’s no right to regulate what citizens do for fun, and we have laws to ensure that people who go to far are held responsible. And then we just step back. Let the Dems go for it. And let a generation of support for them dry up in an instant.

Unfortunately, the problems run much deeper then that. My generation will fall on whichever side of the issue the democrats tell them to, because thats what many / most were taught to do in 12+ years of indoctrination classes … er public schools.

On the other hand, do we want the youth vote? We just need every real conservative to go on record saying that the case for limited government starts with video games: there’s no right to regulate what citizens do for fun, and we have laws to ensure that people who go to far are held responsible. And then we just step back. Let the Dems go for it. And let a generation of support for them dry up in an instant.

Atlas on January 12, 2013 at 2:32 PM

If this unfolded how you describe we could net real votes, unlike embracing immigration reform which will net less than nothing.

Unfortunately the GOP is overflowing with assclowns like Frank R. Wolf.

cigarette style warning labels on video games? seriously? cigarettes actually do cause health problems. video games? equating them to cigarettes is just so stupid. same with violent movies and TV, what’s so bad about them? people look at those things all the time and it doesn’t actually make them do something violent in reality. sure there are always crazy people who can’t separate fantasy from reality, but most people can. what a completely unnecessary controversy.

Dack Thrombosis on January 12, 2013 at 2:27 PM

Timin203 on January 12, 2013 at 2:31 PM

i’m sure you two will have a different attitude if the things that happened to those people in graphic cigarette images happen to you.

oh wait, i bet you’re both the “that won’t happen to me, that only happens to other people” type. you think you can smoke if you want and magically, nothing bad will ever happen to you. even though smoking has sickened and killed so many other people, you somehow think you will be fine and it’s no big deal.

everyone thinks “that won’t happen to me” and sometimes it happens anyway. then they regret what they did. don’t do things now that you’ll regret later.

Runaway government at work. There are times when the right thing to do is to do nothing.

Revenant on January 12, 2013 at 2:29 PM

Exactly. But to those who believe that we can craft a Utopia if we just have the right laws and the right people in charge, there MUST be something that can be done, and we HAVE TO try, even if we don’t know what to do.

With immigration, I think I actually support a path to citizenship, of sorts. I think everyone living illegally in the U.S. should have the chance to become a citizen: they just have to establish EVERY penny of cost they have incurred to the United States by their residency and use of services, and establish a plan for paying those losses back. In addition to proving that they are law-abiding and decent people.

And then you enforce the laws that are on the books, and cut through the idiotic red tape that ties up legal petitions for citizenship. Make it easy for hard workers and smart folks who will improve the nation to get here, and prohibitively difficult to reside here illegally.

Played right, I guarantee it will make major in-roads with working-class Hispanics. They are NOT nanny-statists, and they hate the way immigration currently works. Give them a way to live and work here legally, and promise to leave them alone, and you’ve got a brand new and solid constituency all your own.

i’m sure you two will have a different attitude if the things that happened to those people in graphic cigarette images happen to you.

oh wait, i bet you’re both the “that won’t happen to me, that only happens to other people” type. you think you can smoke if you want and magically, nothing bad will ever happen to you. even though smoking has sickened and killed so many other people, you somehow think you will be fine and it’s no big deal.

everyone thinks “that won’t happen to me” and sometimes it happens anyway. then they regret what they did. don’t do things now that you’ll regret later.

Sachiko on January 12, 2013 at 2:47 PM

Ah, and I’m sure you’re against government infringing on your freedoms, but when the government forces my neighborhood bar to ban indoor smoking, you’re quite alright with forcing me and others like me to huddle outside in the cold like idiots.

And how about you worry about yourself and not smokers? You should be sending me a thank you card for all of the taxes I pay to the state and federal government in order to enjoy my habit.

Played right, I guarantee it will make major in-roads with working-class Hispanics. They are NOT nanny-statists, and they hate the way immigration currently works. Give them a way to live and work here legally, and promise to leave them alone, and you’ve got a brand new and solid constituency all your own.

Atlas on January 12, 2013 at 2:51 PM

For the very small minority of skilled, productive illegal immigrants that you described, I’m absolutely on board. Once we staunch the flow and ease of crossing our southern border.

For anyone here collecting welfare, sending their kids to public schools, using hospitals, medical and police services while not contributing at all to our economy or country… No. And therein lies the problem. The democrats want THESE people to stay and become citizens so that ta da, they have a huge new voter base.

I don’t think MOST hispanics have much in common with the GOP or small government. Look at what they vote for back home.

If I thought the immigration laws on the books would ever be enforced or the border ever be secured, I might agree with you. However just as with spending cuts, it’s never going to happen.

Kataklysmic on January 12, 2013 at 2:57 PM

Our government doesn’t even pretend to enforce existing law now, even if we passed stricter laws down the line, what makes anyone thing they will enforce those? They’ll just continue to double count the number of illegals sent home, say they’ve increased their enforcement, while basically winking and nodding to the illegals. It’s been like that forever.

Any new plan has to start with a real, enforceable AND demonstrably enforced way to preclude additional illegals from coming in (or greatly reducing the success rate of crossing the border). There are many different ways to accomplish that, the biggest (I would think) would be to cut off all immigrants from our welfare programs AND social programs (if your kid cant go to school in the US, and you cant collect food stamps, you’ll be much less likely to come). Physically securing the border better is important, but at the end of the day we’ll never be able to build an impenetrable wall between the US and Mexico, especially with the amount of money involved in smuggling humans, drugs and cash.

I don’t know the employment statistics and such so I can’t speak to majorities/minorities, but I come from a rural area with a relatively large Hispanic population and almost without exception they’re hard-working and decent individuals… and they HATE the way immigration works: the time it takes to get here legally, the fact that illegal immigrants can abuse the nation they worked their azzez off to become a part of, and so on. They also hate high taxes and dislike anything past basic services (ie schools and fire stations), independence is a core value to them.

I think the abuse problem is much more an urban thing than ethnic or anything else. The Hispanic community in LA has to (metaphorically speaking) look a lot different than in the Southern California backwoods (and yes, SoCal backwoods do exist). I don’t know all the reasons why (but I imagine I know or can guess most of them) but I think fixing urban decay would solve the lion’s share of the problems that we term as “racial” or “socioeconomic” or what have you.

In the short term, you’re probably right. A lot of my ideas are conservative pipe-dreams.

However, I still think that at some point, probably after the total collapse of socialism, that we’ll as a nation and a world be ready to turn around and try something else. They say history repeats itself, and it seems that the upswings and downturns – in anything from economics to military activity to the prevalence of liberty – are cyclical in nature.

Therefore it’s worth finding and throwing out the right policies, no matter how idealistic, if only to keep them in everyone’s mind so that they aren’t lost when things do turn around.

There are many different ways to accomplish that, the biggest (I would think) would be to cut off all immigrants from our welfare programs AND social programs (if your kid cant go to school in the US, and you cant collect food stamps, you’ll be much less likely to come).

Timin203 on January 12, 2013 at 3:03 PM

I agree. But this is academic unless and until we have enough representatives in government with spine. At current, this is what would happen if the great solution above was proposed:

I think the abuse problem is much more an urban thing than ethnic or anything else. The Hispanic community in LA has to (metaphorically speaking) look a lot different than in the Southern California backwoods (and yes, SoCal backwoods do exist). I don’t know all the reasons why (but I imagine I know or can guess most of them) but I think fixing urban decay would solve the lion’s share of the problems that we term as “racial” or “socioeconomic” or what have you.

Atlas on January 12, 2013 at 3:05 PM

I live in a mid-sized city in the north east, and I previously worked as a carpenter. I do know some (mostly south american) really hard working guys who, as you described, are not big government types. But I know many, many more (mostly mexican and from central america) who do not work, don’t make an effort to learn more the basics of english, drive around with no insurance or drivers license in cars they can somehow afford without working, and spend the majority of their time hanging out, getting drunk. And it’s not even really close, it’s probably a 15:1 ratio of moochers to hard workers. Obviously, that’s just anecdotal, but polling data seems to indicate most “hispanics” don’t so much have a problem with the GOP immigration policy (which everyone hates) as they do with their position on less welfare and smaller government.

Right, it probably won’t happen. And anyways, currently, technically, you can’t get welfare benefits without being a citizen. Only social services (schools, hospitals, etc etc) are available to non-citizens. Of course, many illegals do seem to be able to find ways around that rule.

I’ve been out of the loop for a while, statistically speaking I would think the number of video gamers that act illegally are on par with the number of legal gun owners. Was there a get together with mental health experts and that would include the mandatory lawyers involved with possibility of breaking confidentiality? I think we know that the Dem will bow to the demand of the favorite constituency.

Maybe I’m just a bleeding heart, but putting politics aside, it makes me genuinely sad that people are reduced to that state of living

There’s no joy in that existence, there can’t be. It’s a travesty that our policies have pushed people into that state of subsistence.

Atlas on January 12, 2013 at 3:15 PM

I think you’re underestimating the allure of spending all of your time partying and hanging out and not having anything else to do. A lot of people, including my cousins, live that lifestyle and love it. Of course, they always want more money, but in their eyes, you can either work 40 hours a week and have the same amount of income as they do in benefits and still be short on money, or they can do nothing all of the time.

For many, the idea of growing out of poverty and making something of yourself doesn’t exist, as many have been taught by pop culture and the progressives in education. I know an alarming amount of people who are able bodied adults and see no problem with living off the government, sleeping until noon every day and hanging out and partying every night.

Maybe I’m just a bleeding heart, but putting politics aside, it makes me genuinely sad that people are reduced to that state of living

There’s no joy in that existence, there can’t be. It’s a travesty that our policies have pushed people into that state of subsistence.

Atlas on January 12, 2013 at 3:15 PM

Putting politics aside I have a lot of affection for the Hispanic culture. I live in AZ so many of my friends, associates, neighbors, the kids my kids play with, etc. are of Hispanic descent. Socially, they are more conservative than I am.

However, the Latino voting block and the Democrat party are inextricably linked at this point and I don’t see a way to unwind that.

We can have great personal affection for our Latino friends and neighbors but anything we do out of compassion that results in an increase in their percentage of the electorate, we need to do so with the understanding that it will put us that much further away from being in a position to shrink government.

I’ve been out of the loop for a while, statistically speaking I would think the number of video gamers that act illegally are on par with the number of legal gun owners. Was there a get together with mental health experts and that would include the mandatory lawyers involved with possibility of breaking confidentiality? I think we know that the Dem will bow to the demand of the favorite constituency.

Cindy Munford on January 12, 2013 at 3:24 PM

Yeah, playing video games is about as ubiquitous among young guys as “hanging out with girls” or maybe even more so. It would be more remarkable if it turned out the killers had never played a video game in their life.

I’m not a big gamer at all, but I hang out with my work friends once a week to play xbox games, watch football, and drink beer. It’s not just losers in their parents basements who play these ‘shoot em up’ games, and 99.99999% of people who play video games will never kill anyone.

No, I definitely understand the allure of it. But there’s still no real joy in living like that. You can’t really celebrate (the purpose of parties) unless you’ve achieved something worth celebrating.

Not to go philosophy-major on everyone, but essentially everyone from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill argues that the purpose of human life is productive work of some kind. I’ve spent large portions of time being unproductive (mostly elementary school, I didn’t have to work for grades until the middle of high school), and as alluring as laziness is, the feeling of worthlessness, even if it’s subconscious, takes a toll.

Not to mention the physical effects… Without going into too much detail (because of HIPAA), but the last call I ran as a Vollie before I went back to school was a GI bleed due to cirrhosis. I wouldn’t wish a lifestyle that led to that on my worst enemy. And I think, instinctively, even the people on that road don’t want it for themselves.

Above is a chart of “violent victimization” of the US from 1993 to 2011. Notice how it has significantly dropped since 1993? You know what happened in 1992? Wolfenstein 3D, the first modern “first person shooter” video game hit the market. It’s obvious that violent video games don’t cause violence. If they did those lines would be going up not down.

No clear link has emerged between the Connecticut rampage and the gunman Adam Lanza’s interest in video games.

Has it even been demonstrated that he really had an unhealthy obsession with the games?

With the conventional wisdom about violent games I am surprised my kids haven’t killed me.
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Whether it be the 1-2% of tax payers, the 1-2% that are criminals , or the minimal amount of rapes from abortions so many on the left love allowings such a tiny, almost infinitesimal, tail to wag the giant dog we are.